Winning the lottery and the Law of Attraction

[Wandering MGHOWParticipant 551]

I’ve been dreaming about winning the lottery lately (haven’t we all) and while I remain optimistic, the odds of winning are astronomically bad. So bad in fact that it makes me think about the universe and how people have ever even won to begin with. Matching 6 out of 6 random numbers? That is unbelievably difficult. But people have done it. So how did they do it? Were there “forces” at play helping them? Did they attract it/physically manifest the winning numbers through the power of thought? Or is all that new-age “positive thinking” crap just a bunch of bulls~~~, with life being just a random sequence of events based on an infinite amount of variables? In other words, are some people just lucky as f~~~?

Part of me just feels that there is no way you can ever match 6 out of 6 (or even 5 out of 5) numbers without some sort of “guidance”. Maybe there truly are powerful supernatural forces that can do magical things as long as you believe in them?

The sheer astronomical unlikelihood of winning is staggering and intimidating. But I’ve had a really interesting thought lately that makes me ponder. I came across a terrible video online that I recommend none of you watch. A man was driving down a highway somewhere in Russia with his mother in the passenger seat. His dashcam captured the following events. A flatbed truck full of bricks was traveling in the opposite lane, coming TOWARD the driver. About 50 feet before they passed each other, 1 single brick came loose from the back of the truck and bounced along the pavement and landed through the drivers front windshield. The brick hit his mother who was sat in the passenger seat in the face and killed her instantly. The video itself has no gore, but it is horrible and I do not recommend it.

It did get me thinking though about life, the universe, and the unfathomable amount of sequences it took for that to happen. Had either the driver of the truck, or driver of the car been going 1 mph slower or faster, the brick never would have hit her. Had either man stopped to tie his shoe or pick up a coin at the start of the day, the brick never would have hit her. The variables are truly infinite and it is quite honestly mind-boggling. The sheer amount of BAD luck you need to have for that to happen rivals the sheer amount of GOOD luck you need to win the jackpot. It is like “winning” the anti-lottery. It blows my mind how these type of astronomically and theoretically impossible events can happen and do happen to people all the time, whether they are good or bad. The universe actually doesn’t care if the event is terrible (dying randomly) or amazing (winning a jackpot). It shows no bias.

For this reason alone, I have had serious doubts lately that life is just a series of random events and sequences. Lately I’ve been more open to the possibility that we have some sort of control based on our positive or negative subconscious/conscious thoughts. Maybe there really is some sort of “law of attraction” and its not total bulls~~~. And if that is the case, then maybe winning the lottery is actually a possibility. Getting hit in the face with a f~~~ing brick that randomly fell off a truck has to be up there on the list of “extremely unlikely events”. But that s~~~ happened/happens. And if the universe is supposedly all about balance, then an extremely unlikely negative event occurring is just as likely as an extremely unlikey positive event occurring. So maybe with the power of belief I can actually win the lottery, or get hit by a comet. One or the other.

I would like to hear some of your opinions. Thanks

[The Missing ManSpectator 342]

I skimmed though what you wrote so, but I kind of see the picture.

How in touch with spirituality are you?

It sounds like your not having enough money.

Do you actually have everything you need?

What is you want with your life?

Does any of this speak to you?

[Anonymous 43]

Too deep for me…I just did laundry in my bathtub and ironed my clothes to dry them. Such a rip roaring time stomping the water out of my shirts.

[bladeParticipant]

check the coincidences of LINCOLN AND JFK.

I did a thread on it a couple of weeks ago.I have thought along the lines of what you have written.

THE PLANTATION HAS NOW TURNED INTO THE KILLING FIELDS . WOMAN ARE NOW ROLLING CAMBODIAN STYLE .

[StargazerParticipant 12505]

It’s statistics.

A “one in a million” chance doesn’t mean much when you’ve got 300,000,000 chances. That means you’ll statistically get three hundred hits.

As for winning the lottery, let’s say the odds of winning the California Super Lotto Jackpot are 1 in 41 million. Of course, the more tickets you buy, the greater your chances of winning. 2 tickets increases your chance to 1 in 20.5 million, 4 increases it to 1 in 10.25 million, 10 increases it to 1 in 4.1 million, etc. That could get expensive but it does increase the odds of you winning.

But when you consider a situation wherein 400+ million people buy a lottery ticket and exclude for duplicate number purchases, the odds that SOMEONE will hit go up dramatically. This is why it’s so unusual for the summed lottery value to get exceptionally high. Someone wins nearly every time the lotto is played.

So it’s not a matter of “difficult” as it’s random (or as nearly so as can be, if you believe the game to not be rigged) but rather “improbable” for an individual to win. Highly improbably. But given more and more players selecting more and more of the pool of unique numbers, it’s almost guaranteed that someone will pick the numbers that turn out to be the ones drawn.

There’s just no way to make sure that it’s you.

And the “law of attraction” is for fat ugly Oprah viewers and children. There’s no such thing as bending the lows of the universe just because you wish for something really really bad.

What you CAN do, on the other hand, is what I call “probability branching”, though I’m sure it has a real name somewhere. This is the process by which you make a decision that produces a desirable outcome for you and that decision opens up branches of other possible decisions that afford more desirable outcomes. By doing this you can branch your way into a very nice life position, but it’s really just a string of virtuous choices leading to rewarding outcomes.

Remember this works both ways, though. You go to that party and choose to do coke in the toilet you may get to bang the dealer’s girlfriend, but doing so opens up a branch of options which lead to other branches of options which will almost certainly end up with you drowning in a pool of your own vomit. Say no to the coke, leave the party before the heroin and cops arrive and you might find yourself on a much better branch.

That’s how you get ahead in life… virtuous choices that lead to desirable outcomes and branches of other choices which afford more of the same.

[BadgerParticipant 2277]

The biggest winner in lotteries are the promoters. Even if you win, you are taxed on the winnings. They get your original purchase money and then demand more if you win.

I previously worked where there were three Native American casinos within 50 miles and would have to listen to the statistically challenged try to regale me with their attempts to beat the system. They would laugh when I told them “I don’t gamble, I buy stocks” So, I got to retire early and they are still yanking that slot machine handle and buying those lottery tickets in a futile attempt to get rich quick. If you are young, stick you meager money in a Vanguard S&P500 index fund with low fees at the bottom of the market and let it grow.

[DarkRyuParticipant 2354]

Study quantum mechanics and you’ll start to understand how the universe actually works. The “law of attraction” may not be so absurd after all. However, I don’t believe just anyone can use the “law of attraction.” They have to either have an innate skill in using it, or they have to LEARN it through trial and error and a LOT of work. It’s not just dreaming about something you want and getting it. If that were the case, every inmate in prison would be released, and everyone in the world would win the lottery.

[LookAfter#1Participant 352]

The lottery in the uk has changed this year. They’ve added more numbers to choose from. The probability of winning the jackpot under the new rules is 0.000000022194, or about 1 in 45 million.
You are about as likely to win the Lottery as you are to die by lightning strike… just in July this year !
Statistically if you enter one ticket on every draw, with the same numbers, you’d have to wait 432,000 years before the numbers come up.
In my opinion, instead of buying a ticket every week you’d be better off putting that money you would have spent in a jar

[LookAfter#1Participant 352]

As for winning the lottery, let’s say the odds of winning the California Super Lotto Jackpot are 1 in 41 million. Of course, the more tickets you buy, the greater your chances of winning. 2 tickets increases your chance to 1 in 20.5 million, 4 increases it to 1 in 10.25 million, 10 increases it to 1 in 4.1 million, etc. That could get expensive but it does increase the odds of you winning.

I don’t think that’s correct. I’m sure if you buy 1 ticket the chances of winning are 1 in 41 million. Buy 2 tickets it’s 2 in 41 million
3 tickets, the chances are 3 in 41 million
4 tickets is 4 in 41 million.
Etc etc.

[LookAfter#1Participant 352]

The case in the original post where the woman died is tragic. I often think pessimistically too… “how unlucky is it that I got that puncture, if only I was 1 cm to either side it would have never happened”.
However people only remember the bad times, they never think of the times nothing bad ever happens

[StargazerParticipant 12505]

LookAfter#1 wrote:

I don’t think that’s correct. I’m sure if you buy 1 ticket the chances of winning are 1 in 41 million. Buy 2 tickets it’s 2 in 41 million
3 tickets, the chances are 3 in 41 million
4 tickets is 4 in 41 million.

Reduce fractions much?

Let me be more clear. Given that there is a set of numbers N which is the total possible combination of numbers that can be produced by a selection of lottery b~~~~. In the case of the California Superlotto we find N as:

5 main b~~~~ drawn from a pool of 47 + 1 special ball drawn from a pool of 27 = odds of any individual number being selected is 1 in 41,416,353

This is the odds that any individual number set you may select will be the one that is drawn. The fact that multiple individuals may select the same number set would diminish your winnings but not the chance that your number will be drawn.

Now when you select one of the 40 million (rounded), you have one chance in 40 million. If you select a second number, you’ve now got 2 chances in 40M or 1 chance in 20M. By the time you buy 100 tickets, your chance is 1 in 400,000.

1 chance in 400,000 and 100 chances in 40,000,000 are exactly the same thing. Obviously you’re not changing the actual set of number combinations, but the chance of winning reduces down the same way the fraction 2/10 reduces to 1/5.

How do you figure it any other way?

Note that raffle ticket buying does not work this way as every new ticket bought increases the total number of tickets that can be selected from. But with this kind of lottery, the total number set to be selected from is fixed.

If you had enough money and a fast enough method of buying tickets, you could conceivably buy EVERY possible number combination… all 41 million of them… and then be GUARANTEED to win all or some of the pot, if someone else happens to draw the winning number. But good luck purchasing 41 million lottery tickets.

Here’s a link to a Business Insider article that does a cost benefit analysis on exactly this strategy. http://www.businessinsider.com/buying-every-powerball-ticket-2016-1

[Greg HondaParticipant 6406]

I don’t know about the Math, but I heard you were more likely to get hit by a meteorite from space than win the UK lottery. I stopped buying tickets when they doubled the price and raised the odds by adding another number.

The spin was that a higher price and lower probabilty of winning would enable more money to go to “Good Causes”. Who decides if a particular charity is a deserving cause anyway? As far as I’m concerned I want my money to go into the Pot, not to some SJW’s idea of a Good Cause.

It's Time to get Wise

[LookAfter#1Participant 352]

Maybe I am wrong. I am no expert in mathematical statistics.
But the way I pictured it is… there’s 40 million possible combinations. If you buy 1 ticket then you have 1 of those 40 million combinations. If you buy 2 tickets you then you only have 2 out of those 40 million combinations.
Even if you buy 100 tickets. There’s still 40 million combos. Hence my argument you have 100 in a 40 million chance.
The number of possible combinations that could be drawn never reduces. It will always be 40 million. An additional ticket doesn’t reduce the total number possible combinations by half

[AwakenedParticipant 35201]

When I buy a lottery ticket, I’m buying a cheap “what if” dream. Unfortunately, that’s the best I can do some days .

In a World of Justin Beibers Be a Johnny Cash

[PistolPeteParticipant 27143]

I hate to disagree with Son of R’lyeh–but you are right Lookafter#1. Buying more tickets does not increase your odds of winning. It increases your chances of winning —chances of winning and odds of winning are two different things. If you buy one ticket and its a 1 in 40 million shot and then you buy a second ticket you don’t have a 2 in 40 million you have two tickets EACH with 1 in 40 million.

Casinos rely upon people believing the former and not the latter. When you see a slot machine with a 1-100 ratio and people are pulling the lever because they were told well it hasn’t hit in 100 tries so its due! That is a lie. Every pull is a 100-1 shot its not 20 to 1 after 5 pulls, or 1 to 1 after 50 pulls.

All I can say about lotteries and horrible accidents—God has a plan for everyone’s life. If God wanted you to be burdened by great wealth you wouldn’t have to buy dozens of tickets the first one would be a winner. And as for misfortune; we don’t know that it was truly misfortune because we don’t know the mind of God. We do know that we all die some day–have you considered that the mother might have been slowly painfully dying of cancer or something and this was a quick painless way to go? All we can be sure of is death and the fact that God will never allow us to be burdened with something we can’t handle.

[BadgerParticipant 2277]

PistolPete wrote:

God has a plan for everyone’s life. If God wanted you to be burdened by great wealth you wouldn’t have to buy dozens of tickets the first one would be a winner.

If whatever deity really wanted you to be wealthy, it would have you born into a family of wealth rather than messing around with a lottery, casino, or whatever.

[Greg HondaParticipant 6406]

This is more to do with the lottery than rules of attraction so apologies if off topic:

In the mid 80’s my sister married a biker dude who worked for the post office. All was well.

They had a football pools (lottery style gambling based on the scores of weekly football matches), syndicate at work, he was a member. They Won the pools. His share was £250,000. At the time you could buy a good house for £30,000.

Within 6 months they were divorced, (she got cash and prizes). She told me it ruined their relationship with each other and all their friends. If the guy walks into his local bar and buys everyone a drink, He’s being Flash. If he doesn’t buy everyone a drink hes being tight. They lost most of their friends but (being working class), they didn’t have the social status to mingle with other wealthy people.

As a side note I will never forget that the year before she/they won the pools, I got a five pack of TDK C90 Cassettes for christmas. I was expecting a big Christmas gift after they won the money.

I got a 3 pack of “Own Brand” C60s!

It's Time to get Wise

[PistolPeteParticipant 27143]

There is a guy here in Florida that won a lottery a couple of years ago and guess what? His “friends” ended up murdering him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Shakespeare

Sometimes great wealth is a burden.

[BadgerParticipant 2277]

The Internet has multiple stories on how more than half of the winners of large lottery payoffs are broke 7-10 years later.

[Anonymous 54]

Your odds are better at the race trac. Any pro gambler will tell you that.

Most lottery winners do not posses the intelect and skills to protect the money, let alone make it grow.

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